The Lights of Hope
by idioticonion
Summary: In Season 6, Episode 1, Big Days, Barney gives Robin some tough love. A companion piece to The Best Armor by defectus.


He didn't mean to be such an ass to Robin. Or rather, he didn't go to the bar with the deliberate intention of upsetting her. But Barney found himself needling her with every word that came out of his mouth, expressing his disapproval, his exasperation, even his genuine concern for her.

That Robin Scherbatsky should be reduced to this by _that_ guy, it just gets to him.

Seeing this mess of a woman, this ugly, wounded _thing_, it's too close to the bone for him. It's too close to how she'd started to look towards the end of the time when they were dating. And he gets that. Barnman-and-Robin were never going to work (he tells himself that, he has to _keep_ telling himself or he'll go mad) and so they got caught in this spiral of unhappiness, grinding deeper and deeper into each other.

And not in the good way.

Now, it's a year on from when Barney made Robin the centre of his world; a whole year since he'd opened himself up to the truth of them. And Robin's sitting there eating cheetos like she's been defeated by life. He hates that. He hates it with a passion that's impossible to ignore. And as much as Barney Stinson wishes he could be supportive, like Ted, or accepting, like Lily and Marshall, he just _can't_.

He knows what it's like to be betrayed. He knows what he'd do, and so he sees himself in her. At times like this you don't need understanding or acceptance. At time like this you need tough love.

And so he'd told her, straight out. He'd said the words she'd needed to hear for weeks. "I challenge you," his tone said. "This isn't you." But the actual words come out a little differently, telling her she's lost it, coating his jibes in a thick layer of humour.

He just hopes she gets it - the message-beneath-the-bravado. He hopes she knows he's only doing this because somebody has to, and he's got a free pass. She's allowed to hate him, to scorn him, to look down on him. He doesn't mind, as long as it gets her out of her funk and back into her groove of awesome.

Robin Scherbatsky doesn't deserve to be brought low like this. Barney would do anything, literally anything, to have save her from that. But he got sucked in too. He'd thought Don was a straight up guy.

As he watches her stalk out of the bar with her head held high, Barney feels a flutter of something like pride. Sitting next to him, Ted merely shrugs.

*-*-*

Later, after Robin's grand entrance back into the world of hotness, she comes over to them and, surprisingly, slides into the booth beside him. As Lily bemoans her and Marshall's thwarted baby-making, Barney feels the light press of something against his calf muscle and lower leg. It takes him a few moments to realize that it's Robin, sliding her foot up and down, teasing him with a glittering sparkle in her eyes.

But he doesn't miss a beat. He's Barney Stinson and he's a master at this game. Even though he feels that familiar tightness down below and a warm, welcome flush spread across his skin radiating from where her toes wriggle against his pants, he doesn't crack for a moment.. But still, it's like he's hyper-conscious of her, of the need in her, of how easily she's managed to go from slob to seductress in less than an hour.

As much as he hated the slob, he wonders if this is actually worse, if it _will_ be worse, for the time that he needs to resist her. Because Barney finds himself drawing in a shivering breath for the first time in months, his heart beating faster because of her. For the first time in a year, Barney allows himself to fantasize about her, like he can turn back the clock and imagine himself in a time when she was unknown and dangerous and all he wanted to do was take a leap for her.

Telling himself not to be so stupid and that it's just his body that's woken up to wanting her, he flirts a little and he doesn't react with anything more than sincerity no matter what she does with her foot. And when Lily leaves the booth to go after her husband, Barney lifts his scotch to his lips and says, very softly, "What are you doing?"

Robin gives him that panicked, slightly ruffled look. "What do you think I'm doing?"

He snorts and takes a careful sip, letting the whiskey warm his mouth before drawling, in deep-sleaze, "I think Momma wants her honey and she don't care where she gets it." He reaches down under the table and deftly twitches the cotton hem of her dress aside, revealing one honey-colored knee.

Harrumphing, Robin's eyes flash. "Flatter yourself much?" She says with a snort, and she quickly slides out of the booth and collapses into the seat opposite from him.

He allows himself a small smile of triumph to match the glint of annoyance in her eyes. "Oh just go get laid, woman. Cheesy guy with the belt is still looking over here."

"I know," she says airily, tossing her hair, but there's a chink of vulnerability in her expression.

"You do look smoking hot," he says, because maybe it's time to drop the act a little and, anyway, he can see how much those few reassuring words lift her and make her preen. She's not out of the woods yet.

"You said that already," Robin replies, a fond smile playing across her lips that makes his stomach flutter once more. Jesus, he thought he and Robin were done with all that. He thought they were over. _Please let them be done. _

Neither of them deserve any more heartbreak.


End file.
